This Puzzle Zone totally needs to be adopted by some creative department somewhere.

Ah, for me? “bIkE” is the important word here.

It wasn’t me who was having the stupendous Monday.

God is in my 5th grade class.

Can you guess where I am?  Yes, I’m the only non-Korean and the youngest one there. One of the climbers had a son my age.  Age didn’t stop this crew though. They hauled. It was a 14 or so kilometer hike along one of the ridges. We topped out around 1400m in elevation. The first  2k was straight up, then after that it was a steady up and down. Everything was green and beautiful. It’s definitely worth another hike.

-Did my first Korean 5k race. I survived and managed to be beaten by little elementary students. It was a fun time anyhow. Running with a couple thousand people mixed with a little competition is much more enjoyable than running with the road and losing against the clock. I’m considering another race next month. And I swear, that will be my last 5k.

Yes, it does. And that is why I don’t do it. I almost died trying to run a full 5k today. Running on the flat road seemed too much of a snooze, so i chose a 5k route that had a little mountain in it. The run up the Buan mountain was just bearable. There were some tough moments where I felt as if my stride was less than a couple centimeters.  I got to the top though, and I was mildly happy. It was 4k at that point and I had a nice view…of the ground. I was out of breath and bent over looking at perhaps the only patch of grass in all of Buan. It was a nice green, similar to the color of my face.

I regained my composure after a few deep inhales, and tried to prepare myself for the upcoming part. The most painful moment for any runner, I’m sure! -Running down an incline, trying to stop the body from collapsing into the ground. I could feel my leg joints being crushed by the weight of my upper body. I wanted to curl up in a ball and just roll down. I think that would of been much faster and surely less painful.

I made the 5k mark with gritted teeth. I was so happy to be done. I will never run 5k again, that is, until this weekend’s race. OK, after that I will never run again.

With a long weekend, why not go the state right next door? That’s right, except this state was China, not Ohio. If I had to describe my four day visit to Beijing in a couple words I would say huge and colorful. The scale was unbelievable. Going too big clearly wasn’t a concern. The city is huge, the buildings are huge, there are huge numbers of people, and the aforementioned are all colorful. Vibrant, rich, active and whatever. -So much going on.

Here stand the guards during the morning flag raising ceremony. It was way too early. I believe is was 5:11AM.

The entire travel crew inside the Fordbidden City.

Salsa dancing in China? (Yeah, never thought I would do that)

Scorpion on a stick. They were actually squirming on the stick. For about five bucks the cooks fry these up for you to eat. And, of course, as tourists and boys, Evan, Herman, and I had to. I had one. Evan, the truely brave one, had three. I wonder if I knocked a couple years off my life for that experience. hmmmm…..

Jumping. It’s an addiction. I couldn’t help it, especially when tempted by the greatest wall of all.

-Proof that the six graders are learning English. Although, I can’t take the credit for this.

?…or, its shortened form, 뭐라구 [maw-la go]? It’s the equivalent of Pardon? Sorry? What did you say? This is a term all foreigners in Korea have heard. It’s usually accompanied by a confused look. All attempts at stopping a Korean to explain this phrase had failed…..until today.